Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine - A Biography

Truly in a class of its own, Young Michelangelo is the most definitive and eye-opening study of the artist’s early life to come along in a generation.

In this compelling account, renowned art historian John Spike paints a vivid portrait of one of the world’s greatest artists and the places and people—Lorenzo de’ Medici, Leonardo, Machiavelli—that inspired and defined his early life and career. Spike’s masterful text probes the thinking, evolution, and desires of a young man whose awareness of his exceptional talent never wavered. Michelangelo’s complex personality is revealed through lively examinations of the Pietà, the David, and all other major works. Drawing on a rich background of Italian Renaissance politics and culture, Spike deftly navigates the fiery Florentine master’s struggle to surpass da Vinci’s artistic mastery, and his troubled relationships with Julius II and other key figures of the era.

Advance Praise for Young Michelangelo:

“Making the most of Michelangelo’s ample correspondence and the recently published records of his extensive banking transactions, Spike has drawn an astonishingly vivid portrait of the artist’s first 33 years. It's the best life of Michelangelo I've read, and it leaves one wishing the author would complete Michelangelo’s life with his wonderful grasp of the artist’s tenacious personality and Herculean achievement.” ~ Everett Fahy, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Tense and agile as an early sculpture, Young Michelangelo is a compelling portrait of the artist as a young man in a dangerous time.” ~ Peter Robb, Author of M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio

“This erudite but immensely readable account is essential for anyone who desires to know more about Michelangelo’s formation.” ~ David Alan Brown, National Gallery of Art

“Spike is a masterful weaver of disparate information into a synthetic narrative. He provides a rich web of the political, social, and personal contexts against which Michelangelo's early career unfolded.” ~ John Hunisak, Professor of Art & Architecture, Middlebury College

Publishers Weekly

Art historian Spike (Caravaggio) weaves together the personal and professional relationships that shaped the first 30 years of Michelangelo's career, from his early days in the Medicis' sculpture garden to the commissions that culminated in his work in the Sistine Chapel. Spike's Michelangelo is driven relentlessly by ambition, an obligation to provide for his dysfunctional family, and a firm conviction of his own genius. Although he lacked the social graces of contemporaries Leonardo and Raphael, Michelangelo attracted the patronage of the most important political figures of the time. Michelangelo was probably one of the very few who could flee Rome in the middle of completing the pope's tomb, repeatedly refuse orders to return, and still receive an even more important commission for a bronze sculpture. Spike crystallizes historical detail into vivid, memorable imagery. One scene stands out in particular: Michelangelo's six-ton David being slowly dragged through the streets of Florence to its place in front of the Palazzo della Signoria. Alternating between accounts of the turbulent political atmosphere and details of Michelangelo's most private moments in the sculpture studio, Spike creates a rich narrative that promises more intrigue than the best adventure novel. 60 illus., maps. (Sept.)

John T. Spike, critic, curator, and art historian, is the author of more than 20 significant books on Italian painting and artists, including Caravaggio. He lives in Florence and teaches in the Sacred Arts Masters program at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome.